For those that do not know and have not considered the processes that go into making a drumstick, I wanted to share a bullet list of the process in the one man, one machine (lathe) shop. These processes are what makes it difficult to make very small batches of a drumstick and limit the ability for "one off" custom product.
- Find a wood distributor
- select boards for grain structure and minimum imperfections
- load, transport lumber and unload lumber at shop
- cut boards down to rough stock length- called "books" (while inspecting yet again)
- stack boards to acclimate MC (moisture content)
- ripped cupped and wide books for jointer width processing and stack
- trim books to exact stock length
- joint one face (2 passes min.) to ensure flatness before planing, stack again
- plane second surface of book to yield nice flat stock @ 13/16 thickness (2 passes min.) and stack
- rip stock to 13/16 yielding a 13/16" square billet (blank)
- stack to let acclimate to MC
- once MC is established, sort billets for grain structure and imperfections
- choose the desired tooling for the desired stick
- mount tooling on lathe and "dial in" the shaft and neck diameter (not cnc, MANUAL) this includes adjustment nuts, bolts and some .0025" shims
- run several undesirable billets to fine tune the lathe (these will also be used to dial in other processes)
- load lathe hopper with billets and begin turning (the lathe cuts 85-90% of the stick)
- set up/dial in trim saw to trim "chucks" from the tip and butt of the stick to length
- trim all pieces turned by lathe
- set up/dial in tip station
- tip all sticks that are trimmed
- setup/dial in butt roundover
- round over all butts
- setup/dial in sander for tip and shaft of stick to be sanded
- sand all sticks that were lathed, trimmed and shaped
- Let sticks sit for 1-2 days to acclimate MC (imperative to weed out bananas)
- roll all sanded drumsticks to weed out bananas before lacquer *
- weigh lacquer and water mix to ratio of sticks being tumbled (works best 36pc min.)
- add sticks and lacquer to tumbler and run for 30 minutes or until damp dry(not slimy)
- remove each stick from tumbler and hand rub with damp rag
- place on rack to dry for 12 hours min.
- place sticks in tumbler with 4 gallons of shavings to polish (10 minutes min.)
- roll for straightness again (lacquer will create a few bananas) *
- sort for weight
- match by pitch (this process may go away since most drummers don't seem to think it matters)
- place pair in a rack
- hand stamp each stick with size and brand name
- hand wrap each pair of sticks with a sleeve
- inventory and place in bin
These are the processes in a nutshell. As you can see, there are quite a number of processes that go into making a LA BackBeat Drumstick.
For those drummers that are asking about spec sizes, this is why the sticks are at the small batch, custom pricing.
*The loss to bananas does not stay constant from larger batch to small batch